Those items include salaries, benefits and maintenance costs of the district, and new purchases of books and technology.

If passed, the levy will not be used to bring back any previously cut services, but several services have been placed on the chopping block if the levy fails, Hanlon said.

The School Board will consider eliminating the full-day kindergarten program and replacing it with state minimum programming, as well as elimination of the gifted and talented program, and all seventh- through 12th-grade athletics.

The few non-athletic field trips that the district still offers also would be eliminated.

Busing would be cut to state minimum, which requires schools to offer busing to kindergarten through eighth-grade students outside of a 2-mile radius of their school.

State minimum does not require busing for high school students.

Other cost-saving measures being considered include privatization of transportation services and custodial services, as well as position eliminations.

The cuts may come as soon as the second semester of the school year, Hanlon added.

The last time the district sought a levy was in 2010, when voters rejected a replacement levy by 29 votes, Hanlon said.

"The point that we're still trying to emphasize is the last new operating levy that was passed was 1999, which we think is an exceptional track record," he said.

The district has cut more than $3 million in expenses throughout the past four years by implementing cuts to personnel, salary freezes for administrators, certified and classified staff, and increases to employee contributions for health care and benefits.

The district also has entered partnerships with other districts to share services like transportation and nutrition.

Hanlon said this new levy is crucial to the district, and so is the renewal levy that voters will see in 2013.

"Just as crucial, while that's not a tax increase, it's just as crucial to the overall five-year forecast," he said.

That 6.06-mill renewal levy will be on the ballot sometime next year.

Even if the levy passes in November, the district will continue to examine further ways to trim the budget and avoid more taxes, Hanlon said.

The Painesville School District, as of April, had 9,159 registered voters who are eligible to decide the Nov. 6 levy, according to the Lake County Elections Board.